Thomas Ruffin Gray
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Thomas Ruffin Gray
Thomas Ruffin Gray (1800 - unknown) was an American attorney who represented several enslaved people during the trials in the wake of Nat Turner's slave rebellion. Though he was not the attorney who represented Nat Turner, instead he interviewed him and wrote ''The Confessions of Nat Turner''. Early life Before his family settled in Southampton County, Virginia they lived in Nottoway Parish, Virginia. But he himself only ever lived in Southampton. He was born sometime in the early 1800s, the exact date is unknown. He was the youngest of six children of Thomas and Anne Cocke Brewer Gray. He grew up as the son of a slave owner and when his grandfather died his father inherited 5 slaves and 400 acres of land. Their land they owned was next to the plantation of Joseph Ruffin who was Edmund Ruffins's father's cousin. When Joseph Ruffin died, he freed a slave named Charles and also gave one slave to each of Thomas Gray's children. At some point it's believed that Thomas Gray sold these ...
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Nat Turner's Slave Rebellion
Nat Turner's Rebellion, historically known as the Southampton Insurrection, was a rebellion of enslaved Virginians that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831.Schwarz, Frederic D.1831 Nat Turner's Rebellion" ''American Heritage'', August/September 2006. " Led by Nat Turner, the rebels killed between 55 and 65 White people, making it the deadliest slave revolt in U.S. history." The rebellion was effectively suppressed within a few days, at Belmont Plantation on the morning of August 23, but Turner survived in hiding for more than two months afterward. There was widespread fear amongst the White population in the aftermath of the rebellion. Militia and mobs killed as many as 120 enslaved people and freed African Americans in retaliation.Breen, Patrick H. (2015). ''The Land Shall Be Deluged in Blood: A New History of the Nat Turner Revolt''. Oxford University Press. pp. 231. ISBN  978-0199828005. "high estimates have been widely accepted in both ac ...
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Southampton County, Virginia
Southampton County is a county located on the southern border of the Commonwealth of Virginia. North Carolina is to the south. As of the 2020 census, the population was 17,996. Its county seat is Courtland. History In the early 17th century, the explorer Captain John Smith founded the settlement of Jamestown; in the next decades of the colony's history, Jamestown settlers explorer and began settling the regions adjacent to Hampton Roads. The Virginia Colony was divided into eight shires (or counties) with a total population of approximately 5,000 inhabitants in 1634. Most of Southampton County was originally part of Warrosquyoake Shire. The shires were soon to be called counties. In 1637 Warrosquyoake Shire was renamed Isle of Wight County. In 1749, the portion of Isle of Wight County west of the Blackwater River was organized as Southampton County. Later, part of Nansemond County, which is now the Independent City of Suffolk, was added to Southampton County. This ar ...
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Justice Of The Peace
A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the same meaning. Depending on the jurisdiction, such justices dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions. Justices of the peace are appointed or elected from the citizens of the jurisdiction in which they serve, and are (or were) usually not required to have any formal legal education in order to qualify for the office. Some jurisdictions have varying forms of training for JPs. History In 1195, Richard I ("the Lionheart") of England and his Minister Hubert Walter commissioned certain knights to preserve the peace in unruly areas. They were responsible to the King in ensuring that the law was upheld and preserving the " King's peace". Therefore, they were known as "keepers of th ...
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Real Property
In English common law, real property, real estate, immovable property or, solely in the US and Canada, realty, is land which is the property of some person and all structures (also called improvements or fixtures) integrated with or affixed to the land, including crops, buildings, machinery, wells, dams, ponds, mines, canals, and roads, among other things. The term is historic, arising from the now-discontinued form of action, which distinguished between real property disputes and personal property disputes. Personal property, or personalty, was, and continues to be, all property that is not real property. In countries with personal ownership of real property, civil law protects the status of real property in real-estate markets, where estate agents work in the market of buying and selling real estate. Scottish civil law calls real property "heritable property", and in French-based law, it is called ''immobilier'' ("immovable property"). Historical background The word " ...
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Nat Turner
Nat Turner's Rebellion, historically known as the Southampton Insurrection, was a rebellion of enslaved Virginians that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831.Schwarz, Frederic D.1831 Nat Turner's Rebellion" ''American Heritage'', August/September 2006. " Led by Nat Turner, the rebels killed between 55 and 65 White people, making it the deadliest slave revolt in U.S. history." The rebellion was effectively suppressed within a few days, at Belmont Plantation on the morning of August 23, but Turner survived in hiding for more than two months afterward. There was widespread fear amongst the White population in the aftermath of the rebellion. Militia and mobs killed as many as 120 enslaved people and freed African Americans in retaliation.Breen, Patrick H. (2015). ''The Land Shall Be Deluged in Blood: A New History of the Nat Turner Revolt''. Oxford University Press. pp. 231. ISBN  978-0199828005. "high estimates have been widely accepted in both ac ...
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James Strange French
James Strange French (1807–1886) was a lawyer, novelist, and later hotel keeper. Early life James Strange French was born in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, in 1807. He was educated at the College of William & Mary and the University of Virginia, then read law with his uncle Robert Strange in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Career In 1831, French represented Nat Turner, as well as a number of other slaves accused of participating in Nat Turner's slave rebellion. French was joined in defending slaves by Meriwether Brodnax, William Henry Brodnax, Thomas Ruffin Gray, who published ''The Confessions of Nat Turner'' and is commonly referred to as Nat Turner's lawyer, and William C. Parker. Those assertions are not entirely true. Meriwether B. Brodnax (sometimes written Merewether B. Broadnax) was a prosecutor, and his brother William Henry Brodnax William H. Brodnax (also Broadnax), (1786 – October 23, 1834) was a nineteenth-century American militia Brigadier General and Americ ...
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North Carolina Law Review
The ''North Carolina Law Review'' is the law journal of the University of North Carolina School of Law. It was established in 1922 and is published in six issues each year. As of 2017, the ''North Carolina Law Review'' was ranked #30 among US law journals. The North Carolina Law Review also publishes an online supplement the ''North Carolina Law Review Forum'' (Bluebook ''The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation'' is a style guide that prescribes the most widely used legal citation system in the United States. It is taught and used at a majority of U.S. law schools and is also used in a majority of federal ... abbreviation: '). References External links * American law journals General law journals University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill publications Publications established in 1922 English-language journals Bimonthly journals {{US-law-stub ...
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William Styron
William Clark Styron Jr. (June 11, 1925 – November 1, 2006) was an American novelist and essayist who won major literary awards for his work. Styron was best known for his novels, including: * '' Lie Down in Darkness'' (1951), his acclaimed first work, published when he was 26; * ''The Confessions of Nat Turner'' (1967), narrated by Nat Turner, the leader of an 1831 Virginia slave revolt; * ''Sophie's Choice'' (1979), a story "told through the eyes of a young aspiring writer from the South, about a Polish Catholic survivor of Auschwitz and her brilliant but psychotic Jewish lover in postwar Brooklyn". In 1985, he had his first serious bout with depression. Once he recovered from his illness, Styron was able to write the memoir '' Darkness Visible'' (1990), the work for which he became best known during the last two decades of his life. Early years Styron was born in the Hilton Village historic district of Newport News, Virginia, the son of Pauline Margaret (Abraham) and ...
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The Confessions Of Nat Turner
''The Confessions of Nat Turner'' is a 1967 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by American writer William Styron. Presented as a first-person narrative by historical figure Nat Turner, the novel concerns Nat Turner's slave rebellion in Virginia in 1831, but does not always depict the events accurately. It is based on ''The Confessions of Nat Turner: The Leader of the Late Insurrection in Southampton, Virginia'', a first-hand account of Turner's confessions published by a local lawyer, Thomas Ruffin Gray, in 1831. ''Time Magazine'' included the novel in its ''TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005''. Historical background The novel is based on an extant document, the "confession" of Turner to the white lawyer Thomas Ruffin Gray. In the historical confessions, Turner claims to have been divinely inspired, charged with a mission from God to lead a slave uprising and destroy the white race. He claimed to receive messages, and these messages told him to follow through wit ...
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19th-century American Writers
The 19th (nineteenth) century began on 1 January 1801 ( MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 ( MCM). The 19th century was the ninth century of the 2nd millennium. The 19th century was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was abolished in much of Europe and the Americas. The First Industrial Revolution, though it began in the late 18th century, expanding beyond its British homeland for the first time during this century, particularly remaking the economies and societies of the Low Countries, the Rhineland, Northern Italy, and the Northeastern United States. A few decades later, the Second Industrial Revolution led to ever more massive urbanization and much higher levels of productivity, profit, and prosperity, a pattern that continued into the 20th century. The Islamic gunpowder empires fell into decline and European imperialism brought much of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and almost all of Africa under colonial rule. It was also marked by the collapse of the large S ...
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American Lawyers
American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, people who self-identify their ancestry as "American" ** American English, the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States ** Native Americans in the United States, indigenous peoples of the United States * American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America" ** Indigenous peoples of the Americas * American (word), for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts Organizations * American Airlines, U.S.-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas * American Athletic Conference, an American college athletic conference * American Recordings (record label), a record label previously known as Def American * American University, in Washington, D.C. Sports teams Soccer * B ...
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19th-century American Biographers
The 19th (nineteenth) century began on 1 January 1801 ( MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 ( MCM). The 19th century was the ninth century of the 2nd millennium. The 19th century was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was abolished in much of Europe and the Americas. The First Industrial Revolution, though it began in the late 18th century, expanding beyond its British homeland for the first time during this century, particularly remaking the economies and societies of the Low Countries, the Rhineland, Northern Italy, and the Northeastern United States. A few decades later, the Second Industrial Revolution led to ever more massive urbanization and much higher levels of productivity, profit, and prosperity, a pattern that continued into the 20th century. The Islamic gunpowder empires fell into decline and European imperialism brought much of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and almost all of Africa under colonial rule. It was also marked by the collapse of the large S ...
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